The Democratic Alliance has called on newly-appointed KZN EDTEA MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, to establish a multi-disciplinary task team to urgently support the biofuel industry in the province and to unlock the industry’s undeveloped potential in terms of job creation.
The call, made yesterday in the form of a Motion during a Sitting in the provincial Legislature, comes as Tongaat Hulett Sugar is in dire financial straits with cheap sugar imports ruining the KZN industry.
The DA is aware that Tongaat Hulett has concluded comprehensive studies into crop diversification and the production of biofuels. This will help save jobs and boost the economy. Yet the ANC-led provincial government has done little to aid the company, and others like it, in fully developing its biofuels and alternate energy strategy. This shows yet again that while the ANC – and more recently Premier Zikalala – talks left, it walks right.
More than a quarter of KZN’s citizens remain unemployed, many of them young people, yet biofuels and alternative energy sources remains untapped as a means of providing employment. Meanwhile, according to the latest Manpower Group Employment Outlook Survey, only two percent of employers surveyed in KZN said they would be adding jobs between July and September. This does not augur well for our province and it is critical that KZN’s new EDTEA MEC starts to look at innovative ways in which to ensure job creation.
The DA also remains concerned that innovative new industries are paid lip service – but that no real concrete action is taken in realising the economic potential. A classic example is the massive potential to revive the local textile and agri-processing industry through the growing of hemp. The ANC has yet to put the regulatory processes in place to unlock this multi-billion Rand industry.
The DA has long since realized the importance of providing the right environment to attract investment and thereby jobs. This has led to the DA-led Western Cape creating 50% of all new jobs in South Africa – 95 000 out of a total of 188 000 – between the 3rd quarter of 2017 and the 3rd quarter of 2018.
It is the mandate of the KZN EDTEA Department to ensure that the environment within our province is conducive to business and to job creation. As the province’s EDTEA MEC, the DA expects MEC Dube-Ncube to follow through on this and all other job creation prospects.